He made a（) to build a successful business on his own in this district.

3 The Global Hotel Group (GHG) operates hotels in most of the developed countries throughout the world. The directors

of GHG are committed to a policy of achieving ‘growth’ in terms of geographical coverage and are now considering

building and operating another hotel in Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is a developing country which is situated 3,000

kilometres from the country in which GHG’s nearest hotel is located.

The managing director of GHG recently attended a seminar on ‘the use of strategic and economic information in

planning organisational performance’.

He has called a board meeting to discuss the strategic and economic factors which should be considered before a

decision is made to build the hotel in Tomorrowland.

Required:

(a) Discuss the strategic and economic factors which should be considered before a decision is made to build

the hotel. (14 marks)

e problem.One of these，for example，was the great Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci(达·芬奇).In the sixteenth century he made designs for machines that would fly.But they were never built.Throughout history, other less famous men have wanted to fly.An example was a man in England 800 years ago.He made a pair of wings from chicken feathers.Then he fixed them to his body and jumped into the air from a tall building.He did not fly very far.Instead，he fell to the ground and broke every bone in his body.

The first real steps took place in France, in 1783.Two brothers, the Montgolfiers, made a very large “hot air balloon”.They knew that hot air rises.Why not fill a balloon with it？The balloon was made of cloth and paper.In September of that year，the King and Queen of France came to see the balloon.They watched it carry the very first air passengers into the sky.The passengers were a sheep and a chicken.We do not know how they felt about the trip.But we do know that the trip lasted eight minutes and that the animals landed safely.Two months later，two men did the same thing.They rose above Paris in a balloon of the same kind.Their trip lasted twenty-five minutes and they travelled about eight kilometers.

26.Leonardo da Vinci ______ .

A.said that man would fly in the sky one day

B.built a kind of machine which never flew

C.drew many beautiful pictures of birds

D.made designs for flying machine

27.Eight hundred years ago an Englishman ______ .

A.made a kind of flying machine

B.tried to fly with wings made of chicken feather

C.wanted to build a kind of balloon

D.tried to fly on a large bird

28.In fact，the Englishman who tried to fly ______ .

A.lost his life

B.flew only 8minutes

C.got badly wounded

D.succeeded in flying

29.The very first air passengers in the balloon were ______.

A.two animals

B.two Frenchmen

C.the King and the Queen

D.the Montgolfiers

30.When did two Frenchmen rise above Paris？______

A.In December 1783.

B.In September 1783.

C.In November 1783.

D.In the seventeenth century.

em. But he always regretted they had to have an end. So he decided to give half his wealth and his beautiful daughter to the man who could tell him a story without an end. Anybody who failed would be sent to prison for life. The risk was so great that nobody came to the palace to tell the Prince a story for a whole year. Then one day, a tall, handsome young man came and said he wanted to tell a story that would go on forever. The Prince agreed but warned him what would happen if he failed. "The risk is worth your fair daughter, " the young man replied poetically (得体地). He then began this well-known story:

" Once upon a time there was a certain King who feared famine. So he ordered his men to build an enormous storehouse, which he filled with corn. Then, when it was up, made water-proof and fire-proof, the King felt happy. But one day he noticed a small hole in the roof and as he looked at it, a locust came out with a grain of corn. A minute later, another locust came out with another grain of corn. Then a third locust with another grain of corn. Then a fourth locust, flying at great speed, pushed through the hole and came out with two grains of corn. Then a fifth locust came and. . . "

"Stop, " shouted the Prince. "I can't, " answered the young man. "I must go on until I tell you what happened to each grain of the corn. " "But that will go on forever. " The Prince protested. "Exactly, " the young man replied, and he smiled as he turned towards the Prince's beautiful young daughter.

The Prince always felt regretted about story because______.

A．he had too much wealth

B．there was a terrible famine

C．all stories have ends

D．there was no story-teller

Tim Berners-Lee is the man who wrote the software(软件)programme that led to the foundation of the World Wide Web. Britain played an important part in developing the first generation of computers. The parents of Tim Berners-Lee both worked on one of the earliest commercial(商业的)computers and talked about their work at home. As a child he would build models of computers from packaging material. After graduating from Oxford University he went on to the real thing. In the 1980s scientists were already communicating using a primitive version(原始版本)of e-mail. While working at a laboratory in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a programme, which let him store these messages. This gave him another idea: write a programme that will let academics(学术界人士)from across the world share information on a single place. In 1990 he wrote the HTTP(服务程序所用的协议)and HTML(超文本链接标示语言)programmes which form. the basis of the World Wide Web.

The next year his programmes were placed on to the Internet. Everyone was welcome to use them and improve them if they could. Programmers used his codes(编码)to work with different operating systems. New things like web browsers(浏览器)and search engines were developed. Between 1991 and 1994 the number of web pages rose from 10 to 100,000.

In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee formed the newly formed World Wide Web Consortium(协会)，or W3C. More than 200 leading companies and laboratories are represented(代表)by W3C. Together they make sure that everyone can share equally on the web. "The Web can help people understand the way that others live and love and are human. It helps us understand the humanity of people, "he says.

1. From the lines we can infer that Tim Berners-Lee is _____.

A. British

B. American

C. Swiss

D. French

2. The main idea of this passage is _____.

A. when the Internet came into being

B. how Tim Berners-Lee formed W3C

C. why computers develop so rapidly

D. how the World Wide Web started

3. Scientists began to communicate using e-mail _____.

A. in 1980

B. after the 1980s

C. before 1990

D. in the 1960s

4. He made up his mind to write a programme that would let people from across the world share information on a single place when _____.

A. he was a child

B. he studied in Oxford University

C. he formed W3C

D. he worked at a lab in Switzerland

5. Which of the following is NOT true？ _____

A. The number of web pages rose very rapidly in the 1990s.

B. Tim's programmes were placed on to the Internet in 1990.

C. The World Wide Web will have an effect on the social development.

D. Tim Berners-Lee made a great contribution to the computer science.

A.a linguistic system and a means for doing things

B.a linguistic system made up of various subsystems

C.a communicative tool to build up and maintain social relations between people

D.a system of categories based on the communicative needs of the learner

A.a linguistic system and a means for doing things

B.a system of categories based on the communicative needs of the learner

C.a communicative tool to build up and maintain social relations between people

D.a linguistic system made up of various subsystems

OPEC to Increase Production

VIENNA (Reuters) OPEC oil exporters agreed to raise output limits on Tuesday but second largest producer Iran, fearing a slump in oil prices, opted out of the deal.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said nine members, excluding Iran, would immediately turn up the taps to 1.45 million barrels daily, or seven percent, easing output curbs made a year ago.

The pact came after heavy pressure from OPEC's biggest customer the United States to ease the price of oil and avert a slowdown in economic growth in the West.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al--Naimi said he hoped to see the price of North Sea Brent in the range of $20-$25 a barrel.

"This decision was made in the interests of producers and consumers in a prudent way. It will have a positive impact and moderate prices," he said.

Iran, outside the pact, said it would raise production in any case, though not by as much as under the quota it was offered.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said he saw room for only one million barrels a day of extra oil. He said Tehran saw no shortage in the market.

"Our differences are on principles, and not only a few barrels," Zanganeh told reporters after the meeting had closed.

"OPEC is not a political organization," he added.

He had complained during the two-day OPEC meeting of "political pressure". OPEC delegates said that was an apparent reference to the United States which launched a diplomatic offensive to get OPEC to raise supplies and lower oil prices on the world market.

In Washington, President Clinton said of extra supply: "In the aggregate it could be sufficient to get production and consumption back in alignment," he said.

Analysts said they expected oil prices, already on the slide from recent highs, falling quickly into the $20-$25 range.

"This will mean extra supply and have a negative impact on oil prices," said Gary Rose of Petroleum Industry Research Associates.

"We're going to see a stock build in the second quarter. I would not be surprised to see Brent at $21-$22.”

Rose said: "The United States was pressing hard for a substantial increase and most in OPEC were in favor of a big increase." Iran has expressed its displeasure at this political.

Non-OPEC Mexico and Norway, having cooperated with OPEC in cutting exports when prices crashed, are shortly expected to announce their own increases.

1. () Iran will raise production at all, but less than it was offered under the quota.

2. () Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the market could absorb 1.45 million barrels of extra oil a day at present.

3. () President Clinton said the new agreement could bring production back to the same level as consumption.

4. () Industry analysts said that the extra oil could have a positive effect on the oil market.

5.() Non-OPEC oil producers such as Mexico and Norway have been competing fiercely with OPEC for world market over the years.

A、a linguistic system and a means for doing things

B、a linguistic system made up of various subsystems

C、a system of categories based on the communicative needs of the learner

D、a communicative tool to build up and maintain social relations between people

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they're nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for humanlike behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid.

A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which nature came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field.

Imitating the brain's neural network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. "People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors", he explains, "but it's not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves. " Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain's capabilities stem from the pattern recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build an artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills.

Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.

The author says that the powerful computers of today ______.

A．are capable of reliably recognizing the shape of an object

B．are close to exhibiting humanlike behavior

C．are not very different in their performance from those of the 50's

D．still cannot communicate with people in a human language